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Sunday, June 21, 2015

#1394: John Bloom

Oh, yes – there are creationists with credentials. Usually,
however, those credentials are irrelevant to the topic of evolution, yet
creationist organizations still like to push these people in an effort to cast
a sheen of respectability on their pseudoscience. John Bloom, for instance,
possesses a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. Currently, however, he is
professor at the faculty of Christian Apologetics at Biola University (he is
also M.Div and Ph.D in Ancient Near Eastern Studies). As such, Bloom has
published extensively on theology, including “Does Intelligent Design Theory
Help Christian Apologitcs” and “Intelligent Design and Evolution: Do We Know Yet?” He has apparently done no scientific research
for the last 30 years, yet his signature is apparently taken to add some weight
to the Discovery Institute’s ridiculous petition A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism.

Bloom claims for instance that “Darwinists do not have a
clue how life first got started ‘by itself,’ [which the theory of evolution does not purport to explain in the first place]
as was well documented in the recent movie Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed,”
a claim so wrong that it resists easy classification. Bloom also thinks that the
idea that humans and chimp share a common ancestor is ridiculous.

Diagnosis: Fairly typical anti-science advocate, though it
is still impressive how little Bloom actually understands of the science he
rejects and the reasons he provides for rejecting it, given his background.